Farmer builds rustic furniture and handicrafts

Farmer utilizes unique pieces of wood in his work

When chilly winds blow, there is no heat. But that doesn't stop the Lane County farmer in western Kansas from spending hours during the winter inside the airy shop. He builds furniture and rustic handcrafts, loving every minute that he is creating.

"You wear layers of clothes," said Ehmke, a farmer who began his winter building projects out of necessity.

"A lot of this goes back to when we were first married with a net worth of $1.39 and we needed a coffee table and lamps," he said.

But even before that, as a child, he built toy barns out of interesting pieces of wood. High school woodworking classes honed his skill.

In recent years, his talent expanded to include desks and bed furnishings for the Grain Bin Scale House and guesthouse he and his wife, Louise, built at their farm, seven miles west of Dighton.

The Associated Press

This rustic Nativity barn is among the wood projects Vance Ehmke has created in his shop in the western Kansas town of Amy.

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"He's a real craftsman," Louise Ehmke said. "He believes if you're going to do it, then you should do it well. What he creates is functional and heavy-duty."

Not wanting to spend any more money after they built the grain bin, they needed furnishings for the upstairs guest rooms.

"Vance taught me long ago, you would be surprised what you can do when your life depends on it," she said. "He loves using resources he has, what's on the farm, finding what looked cool together."

He also values the second opinion from family members.

"I truly believe what others don't want can be beautiful," he said. "A lot of the wood is old stuff that has a lot of character. Some of the wood dates back 100 years, with family ties that make it meaningful."

He finds himself checking his fence rows, looking for neat shapes in the posts, and then replacing them with steel so he can turn the wood into unique bottles. Or he hauls home pieces found in junk piles and shapes them into tables and headboards and beds. He also builds sideboards and trunks out of thick pieces of oak and walnut.

"Hedge is an incredible wood," Ehmke said.

His favorite part is envisioning what something is going to become.

"Looking at the material and trying to organize it into something," he said. "The absolutely fun part is coming up with an image, then creating it."